PARADISE KEY SAFFORD. 



383 



Other striking trees are the satinleaf (pi. 14) which takes its name 

 from the golden brown, satinlike lining of its leaves; the laurel- 

 cherry of the West Indies, the leaves of which when crushed have the 

 characteristic bitter-almond odor of prussic acid ; a beautiful mimosa- 

 like Lysiloma, usually called wild tamarind, with 

 fernlike foliage and smooth white trunk; the mas- 

 tic tree, or wild olive (fig. 7) ; the bois-fidele (in- 

 correctly translated "fiddle wood") with racemes 

 of fruit shown in figure 8, and the pigeon plum 

 (Coccolobis laurlfolla). 



Of special interest is the strangling fig, Ficus 

 aurea, which begins life somewhat like a mistletoe, 

 sprouting from a tiny seed dropped on the limb of 

 a tree. It soon sends down threads which take 

 root when they reach the ground, and which 

 grow together wherever they touch one another, 

 forming a meshwork about the trunk of the host 

 which is slowly strangled to death (pi. 15). This 

 may well be designated the snake tree, or con- 

 strictor, of the vegetable world. Similar trees of 

 the genus Ficus are found in many tropical coun- 

 tries. Botanically they are 

 related to the many-trunked 

 banyan of the East Indies, 

 as well as to the familiar 

 rubber plant of our con- 

 servatories. 1 



Another forest monster is 

 the poison tree, Metopium 

 toxiferum, a giant sumach with a smooth 

 spotted trunk, the sap of which acts very much 

 like the poison ivy of our woods, causing erup- 

 tions on the skin. This tree is tropical in its 

 distribution. On the south shore of the island 

 of Cuba a surveying party of officers and men 

 of the U. S. S. Paducah employed, in May, 

 1912, in clearing a base line near Caballona 

 Channel, were badly poisoned by this tree, the 

 effects of which they described as worse than those of Rhus toxico- 

 dendron. Notwithstanding this the berries are eaten with relish 

 by many species of birds at a time when other fruits are scarce. 



Fig. 7. — M astic 

 tree, Sideroxylon 

 f o e ti di ssimum 

 Jacq. Inflores- 

 cence, FRUIT, AND 

 seeds. Half nat. 



SIZE. 



Fig. 8. ■ — Bois fiddle, 

 Citharexylum frutico- 



sum; FRUIT AND LEAF. 

 IlALF NAT. SIZE. 



1 Students of phytogeography are referred to the work of Dr. John W. Harshberger, 

 of the University of Pennsylvania, on " The vegetation of South Florida," published in 

 the Transactions of the Wagner Free Institute of Science of Philadelphia, vol. 7, part 3, 

 October, 1914. In this work the plants of southern Florida will be found grouped ac- 

 cording to plant formations or associations. 



